Australian Peter O&aposMalley fired a one-under-par 69 to finish in a tied for seventh, three shots behind winner Scot Colin Montgomerie in the European Open. O&aposMalley, who started the day in third place three shots behind overnight leader Swede Soren Hansen, blew his chance for victory with bogies on the 5th and 7th, finishing the tournament on eight-under. He was the best-placed Australian ahead of Peter Fowler and Richard Green, who carded rounds of 67 and 68 respectively to finish locked in a seven-way tie for 18th on five-under, while Terry Price was in 45th place on one-under after an even-par 70. Montgomerie survived two late scares and two storm interruptions to pull off his first win for 19 months. Just 23 days after he crashed out of the US Open with a second-round 82 – his second worst score ever in a major – the 44-year-old Scot followed up his third place in last week&aposs French Open with victory at the K Club near Dublin. Montgomerie fired a closing 65 to win by one from Swede Niclas Fasth having started the day in joint seventh place four behind. “This is not an important win – it&aposs a very, very important win,” he said. “You wonder if it&aposs ever going to happen, of course you do. You have self-doubts and I&aposm so glad.” “I&aposm thrilled with the success. I&aposve never made a winner&aposs speech and said I was unlucky and I was fortunate at the last two today.” The drama came both with his finish and, almost inevitably, the weather. The Scot&aposs six-iron tee shots on the final two holes – both par threes because of the saturated fairway on what is usually the 578-yard 18th – were both perilously close to going in the water. For the second of them Montgomerie, bidding to end the second longest barren spell of his entire career, had to hit his chip with one foot on the rocks, but he got it to five feet and saved par. Fasth, fourth in the US Open and winner of the BMW International Open in Munich on his last start two weeks ago, birdied the 15th to close the gap to one and then, just after missing an eight-foot birdie attempt to tie on the 17th, play was suspended again. There had been a 48-minute hold-up earlier in the afternoon and the second one stretched to 82 minutes, the six players still to finish returning at 6.25pm. Fasth gave himself a 14-foot chance, but it slipped by as well and Montgomerie was safe once Peter Hanson had failed to hole-in-one at the last and Soren Hansen did not birdie the 17th. Result from the European Open (par 70) -11 Colin Montgomerie 69 64 71 65 -10 Niclas Fasth 65 68 70 67 -9 Pelle Edberg 67 65 73 66, Peter Hanson 68 69 66 68, Gregory Havret 65 70 68 68, Anthony Wall 68 72 66 65 -8 Soren Hansen 69 68 63 72, Peter Hedblom 68 68 68 68 , Thomas Levet 70 67 68 67, Peter O&aposMalley (Australia) 72 68 63 69 Also: -5 Peter Fowler (Australia) 70 71 67 67, Richard Green 69 67 71 68 -1 Terry Price (Australia) 71 69 69 70 E Michael Campbell (New Zealand) 68 71 69 72